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SPEECH 



HON. JOHN MINOR BOTTS, 



DELIVERED OX THE 0CCA8I0M OF A 



COMPLIMENTARY DINNER, 



AT NEWARK, N. J., 



ON THE 19t.h OF SEPTEMBER, 1853. 



NEWARK, N. J. 

PRINTED ON THF. STKAM PUKSS OF THE DAILY MERCURY 

1853. 



15n ^ 



^ 6" ^ ^ 3 



CORKESrOKDENCE. 



Kewauk, X. J., Septkmber 9, 1SC3. 
IIov. .Tons M. Rf>TTS, 

Dear Sir: — Having lenrned that you propose to spond a few days in the 
city of New York, we venture to hope that you will embrace this opportunitv 
to visit ou" city and exchange friendly ealutions with your many warm to 
and grateful admirers here. 

As Jerseymea and Whigs, we cherish a lively recollection of the valuable 
services you have rendered, both in and out of Congress, and it would be ex- 
ceedingly gratifying to us to extend to you the hospitality of a public dinner. 
Be kind enough to inform us when you can make it convenient to meet 
your friends here. 

Yours, very truly, 
A. C. M. PENNINGTON, 
WM. E. ROBINSON, 
DAVID A. HAYES, 
DAVID C. DODD, 
THEO. P. HOWELL. 
DANIEL T. CLARK, 



JAMES M. QUINBY, 
JOS. C. nORNBLOWER, 
SILAS JIERCUANT, 
n. N. CONGAR, 
STEPHEN CONGAPs 
W. E. LAYTON. 



AsTOR House, September 12, 1853. 
Gextlemfn, 

I have the honor to acknowledge your very kind invitation to accept a 
public dinner from my friends at Newark, for what you arc pUased to term 
the valuable services I have rendered yoli as Jersoymen and Whigs both in 
and out of Congress. 

Whatever I may have done, gentlemen, in either position, to entitle me to 
the good opinion and good will of the people of New Jersey, was ])rompted 
by a sense of obligations that as a public man I owed to you, to the country, 
and to myself; and whilst I disclaim all pretensions to your gratitude for the 
discharge of a simple duty that my nature could not have resisted, I never- 
theless ftel proud that my humble efTorta in behalf of the broad pcal of Now 



IV CORRESPONDENCE. 

Jersey as a momorjilile period of ]tov liislory, or in liehalf of tlie great Wilis; 
party of llie c'oiiiilry at a latter day, ^lioiiUl have sceiir('<l your aii])rol..atiou 
and esteem. ' 

Tliis is not the first time l]iat the eitizens of New Jersey have manifested 
their kindness towards me, and, havins; now no good excuse to offer, I do not 
feel at liberty again to deeliiie tin- liospitality that has been so generously 
extended, and, therefore, witli great gratification I accept your invitation, and 
wonld indicate Monday, the 19th inst, as the earliest day that it would suit 
my eom-enience to attend. 

I am, gentlemen, with great sincerity, your obliged fellow citizen, 

JOHN M. B0TT3. 

Messes. Pe.nningtok, and others. 



The above correspondence will be read with gratification b}' the host of 
gallant and truediearted "Whigs in this city, who will recognize in the Hon. 
John Mi.vor Botts, one of the best and worthiest Whigs of the Union. As a 
genuine representative of the National Whigs, it is pleasure to do him honor, 
for we know that to him the South is nothing more than the North and the 
whole a glorious country, to be divided by no Mason and Dixon's line. Few 
of our 2)ublie men are so thoroughly national in all their feelings, as Mr. 
Botts, and this may be somewhat attributed to the Clay school in which he 
was educated. His speeches are full of power and afford food for reflection, 
and he never alters the style of them to suit the different latitudes of New 
Jersey and Virginia. Bold and forcible in his enunciation of important prin- 
ciples, he does not stop to enquire whether a measure is pop2dar, but whether 
it is ricjhf. Such a man is honorable, of course, in his conduct and instincts. 
He is uot the tool of time servers, but, as a true and glorious statesman, lakes 
Ills place among the great men of the nation. — Newark Jfercnri/, SijA. 14. 



Newark, N. J., Skptemukr, 24, 1S5?. 
Hov. Joiix M. Botts, 

Dear Sir: — Having listened with much satisfaction to the very able address 
delivered by you at the public dinner, given by your Whig fi-iends and admi- 
rers in this city on the 19th inst, and believing that its general circulation at 
this time, would be ]u-oductive of good in setting forth clearly and favorably. 



CORRESrONDExXCE. V 

tlu" iio?ition ami the iU>ty of tlio Wlii;^ |'iii"ty, we fool citnRtrniiic'l to nnk 
you \o write oiityovir rcmnrks i«n Unit oeon.siini for puhlii-atiun. 

Bo |>lc!iso(l 1(1 give lis a f.-ivoniMi' respoiisf to tliis ri'ijiifst, nixl you will 
grcitUv oliligi', 

Your fri.Mul^ ami f.il.iw Willi's, 

A. CM. PEN'MNCJTON, JAMKS M. QCINBV. 

SILAS MERCHANT. IMVII) (*. DODD. 

JOS. C. II0RNB1>0WEK, STKl'lIEN CONCJAR, 

11. N. CON(".AR, W:\I. E. EAYTON. 

WM. K ROBINSON, 1). T. CLARIC. 

DAVID A. HAYES, THEO. I'. HOWELL. 



AsTiiR HousK, OrroBER :;, 1853. 
Gentlemkn, 

Just a.s 1 was leaving liorc last week, 1 roeeiveJ your iftler a.skiug mo to 
writo out, for publication, tlio .'^poocli delivered on the oecnsioii of the dinner 
lately given mwby my friends in Newark. 

Anxious to ooiuply with any request that such friends could make, 1 have 
.stolen the time from other and ]>resi^inir oeciipations since 1 have been here, 
to commit, to pajtcr the views and opiuions 1 tlien expresseil, which you will 
reeoive herewith. 

I am, gentlemen, wilii the highest esteem and regard, your fellow citizen 

and obedient servant, 

.101 IN M. BOTTS. 
To the Committee. 



[From the Newark Daily MeRcrnv, Skptember 20, 1853.] 



g inner is |jon. |.o|n ||l "^lotts. 



The dinuor tendered to the Hon. J. jM. Botts, of Virginia, came 
off last evening at the. City Hotel, and was the occasion of a most 
genial gathering of the Whigs of our city. On every side were to 
be seen, those who have buttled through good and evil report, in 
• storm and sunshine, for tbe success of the Whig cause. The work- 
ing Whigs of the city were on hand exhibiting that old spirit which 
is ever the forerunner of a triumph. Steadily and truly they have 
labored in the ranks regardless, alike of defeat or treachery, waiting 
for the victory certain to result from their continued conflict. 

The company, consisting of some seventy-five individuals, sat 
down to a most sumptuous entertainment about nine o'clock. The 
Hon. A. C. M. Pennington, occupied the head of the table, with 
the Hon. J. ^I. Botts, Dr. Levin Jones, of Texas, and Mayor 
QuiNBY, on the right, and the venerable Ex-Chief Justice Horn- 
blower, and Eich a rd Fox, Esq., of Richmond, Virginia, on the left. 
After the full discussion of the excellent entertainment, the Presi- 
dent announced the first regular toast : 

1. Our Country— The Xortli, tbe South, the East and the West— as Whigs 
and Jersejmen we know and love them all. 

Hon. A. C. M. Pennington, the President, rose and said : 

I rise to propose the health of a Whig who has been ever faithful 

and ever true — a man who, whether in success or defeat, in storm 

or sunshine, in glory or in gloom, has ever stood by the Whig 

party — a man, I may add, who is a Whig because he loves the 

Whig party, and not because he wishes to profit by it. [Cheers.] 

He comes from the good old State of Virginia — a State said to be 

the mother of Presidents. She certainly has been the mother of 

statesmen, and not the least of them, of him in whose honor I rose 

to propose this sentiment. [Great cheering.] 



8 SPEECH OF THE 

2. Our Guest, the Hon. John M. Bolts, of A^irginin — Independent in his 
ojiinions, and fearless in advocating them, the Whig l>tirty arc proud of him 
as a champion of the good okl Whig cause. 

Mr. Botts arose and responded as follows : 

Mr. President and G-entlemen. — I slioiild be but treading in 
an old and beaten path if I were to engage in a labored cifort to ex- 
press what I sincerely feel on this, to me, interesting and gratifying 
occasion. I must leave much of what I would say, to the imagina- 
tion of those who have done me the distinguished honor, to extend 
to me this evidence of their kind regard. Let it suffice, when 1 
• assure you, that I am profoundly grateful, not for this manifestation 
only, but for other, and repeated occasions on which I have received 
assurances of the respect and esteem of the people of New Jersey. 
Sir, I shall never cease to feel that you have over estimated the small 
service, that some twelve years since, it was my humble part to render 
in the councils of the nation, in defence of the broad seal of New 
Jersey. 

It was not for you Mr. Chairman, it was not for you gentlemen, 
who occupy seats at this festive board, that I took a part in that 
remarkable and never-to-be-forgotten struggle, in which the laws, and 
sovereign rights of a State, were shamefully trodden down, by those 
who are loudest in their professions of devotion to the rights of the 
States, for you were then strangers to me ; what I did, was done in 
defence of a great principle, which my duty and inclination would 
alike have urged me, to render as promptly to any other people or 
State, as to the people and State of which you form a part. 

In offering the sentiment, Mr. Chairman, which you have just 
announced, you did me the honor to make reference to my unwa- 
vering devotion, whether in sunshine or in gloom, whether in triumph 
or defeat, to the Whig party and its principles ; and from the en- 
thusiastic response with which those remarks were received, I cannot 
but flatter myself, that I stand in the presence of those, who still 
believe in the existence of a Wliig party. 

Since I have been in New York (the great political, as well as the 
great commercial emporium of the nation), I have scarcely taken up 
a paper that did not speak of that great party, as dead, and its 
principles as obsolete ; I knew that from the day on which our last great 
national struggle for ascendancy resulted so disastrously for our 
cause, and the welfare of our country, that there had been an 
unceasing effort on the part of the Democratic press to frighten the 
timid, to bewilder the weak, to betray the ignorant, into conviction 



HON. JOHN M. r.t»TT.^. 

and ciinrcssioii, that tlic Wliiu,' l>;iity \va> a thiiiL'' t(j In' licanl of ]icr<'- 
attoi- — " never no more forever ;" but it was not until my present 
visit to the North, that I was prepared to Ijelieve it jiossibh;, that any 
part of the Whig press would also luiite in such an cflbrt to destroy 
our organization; and, Mr. President, it suggest': itself tonic as 
being not entirely unsuitable or inappropriate to the present occa- 
sion, to examine the ({uestion of the existence, or non-existence of 
this, the only sound and conservative party in the country ; what 
is the position it at present occupies, what are its claims upon the 
confidence and support of the country, as contrasted with what is 
called " Democracy," and what is likely to be its ultimate destiny ; 
and whatever I may say here to-nip;ht,Mr. Chairman, I beg to Ijc un- 
derstood as said by an humble private in the ranks, who has no 
])olitieal aspirations to gratify, and no personal ends to accomj»li>]i. 
I have found public life not only a laborious and unprofitable, but 
most thankless occupation. I have fouud many of those for whoso 
interests and welfare I have devoted the energies of bo th mind and 
body for twenty years or more, prompt to surrender their own great 
inestimable natural rights, for which I had struggled, to the dictation 
of party, and to the vulgar prejudice of hollow, deceptive, unmeaning 
party names ; under the flimsy disguise of a spurious Democracy, every 
wi'ong has been perpetrated, and every perpetration has been sus- 
tained by those upon whom those wrongs most severely oparatcd. 
No, Sir ; I am sick of political life, and shall never seek to fill another 
public station ; if any services shall be demanded of mc at any time 
hereafter, in a position where I can promote the interests of the 
masses, whore I can sustain and uphold the power of the people^ 
against the power of the politicians, and selfish office seekers of the 
land, I shall be ready to obey the call ; but. when it docs come, it 
must come (in the language of some Kentuckian I believe,) "by 
spontaneous combustion ;" if any political mantle should light on my 
shoulders, I would endeavor to wear it gracefully and becomingly, 
bid I shall not seek it. 

Understanding as I trust you do then, that it is only in the 
character of au unaspiring citizen that 1 speak, I will proceed with 
the several topics that I have suggested. 

The first enquiry is, When did the Whig party die .' If dead, it 
died on the third day of November. 1852, and on that day it re- 
corded one million three hundred and rightv-Svc thousand, true, 
genuine, undisniaycd Whig votes ; snoii • yoio as was never given 



1 SPEECH OF THE 

before, for that, or any other party since the foundatioQ of the gov- 
erniiient ; and it only required about thirty-five thousand votes, 
properly distributed, to have secured success to its candidate. Never 
was a party surrounded by so many adverse circumstances as was ours 
on that day : with a patched up peace and harmony, between all the 
" is7ns and schisms^'''' and factions of the country, in support of a gen- 
tleman that nobody knew, and that it seems now but one of the fac- 
tions (the Free-Soilers) understood ; and with a prejudice deep rooted 
and immoveable, in our own ranks, that lost us thousands, and tens 
of thousands for the candidate whom the Whig party had' selected ; 
with the influence of many of the most prominent men of our party, 
in position and out of position, actively or secretly exerted against 
us ; still we cast tiiat vote of one million three hundred and eighty- 
five thousand for General "VYinfield Scott, and wanted but the thirty- 
five thousand, as I have said, properly distributed, to have secured a 
triumphant victory, which it was in the power of afew^ occupying 
prominent positions in the government, to have given us, at such 
points as they were most needed, but which they did not think proper 
to do, but in point of fact, by their influence withheld from 
us. And yet we are told, that this extraordinary strength, thus ex- 
hibited, furnished the indication of our weakness, and the necessity 
for our dissolution ; yet, these were the circumstances under which 
we went into that struggle, and this was our condition when we came 
out of it ; and now, when we see the evidence of decay in the ranks 
of those by whom we were defeated, when we see every where around 
us, old hostilities and dissensions breaking out afresh and with in- 
creased rancor, in the Democratic ranks, in a general scramble for 
the spoils, we are gravely told that the Whig party is no more, and 
we are advised to set to work to get up a new organization ; for one, 
I say I am satisfied to stay where I am, adhering with true and strict 
fidelity to my principles, my country, and my party under its present 
organization. 

It has been told of one of the Kings of France, that on a certain 
occasion he visited one of the smaller cities of his dominions, when 
the Mayor of the place commenced an apology for not offering him a 
salute on his arrival, saying " Sire, there are a thousatid reasons why 
it was not done ; in the first place we had no powder." " Stop," said 
the King, " that one is sufficient ; you can reserve the other nine hun- 
dred and ninety-nine for another occasion." So it is here Mr. Chair- 
man, there arc a thousand reasons why wc should not disband ; but 



HON. JOHN M. I50TTS. I 1 

one is insuriiumntablo and uiii^uiHTabK' witli me ; it is, tliat if wi' civo 
up this our present national or;i;anizaliuu, it will di'^'uueratL" into coii- 
teniptible sectional factious all i>ver the cuuutry ; the other nine 
hundi-ed and ninety-nino I shall also reserve for another occasion. 

I incline to think that we should derive some advantage by as- 
suming our old and true name, of " National Kcpubiicuiis ;" for 
wliilst there is no particular meaning attached to the word "Whirr," 
and the masses do not know what it imports, " Nationality " and 
"Republicanism" have each a clear and distinct definition, that every 
body understand, and that no sound man can object to , but a 
change to an old name does not involve re-organization, and llierc. 
fore 1 am for adhering to the organization as it is. 

Mr. Chairman, I have been a member of the Whig party trom the 
day it was first organized. I may claim to be one of the fathers of 
the party. I was one of that old National Republican party which 
constituted the nucleus upon which the present Whig party was 
formed, and which was first christened the " Whig party " by John 
C. Calhoun, who then belonged to it, because it had for its basis, 
opposition to executive power, which came in conflict with the power 
of the people as expressed through their representatives in Con-^rcss • 
this was the origin of the party ; these were the circumstances under 
which it was unfortunately changed in name from that of " National 
Republican " to " Whig," at the time of the bank veto, removal of 
the deposits, the celebrated protest of General Jackson, expunging 
resolutions, &c., &c. It had " nationality " and popular rights then 
as its basis and foundation ; it has maintained both in its superstruc- 
ture to this day, and the day that it drops its nationality or ceases to 
vindicate the rights and the power of the people, that day I drop it 
and abandon it forever ; until then, through good and evil report, in 
adversity and success, I shall always be found in my place ; and in 
the meantime nothing could be more ridiculous than the attempt now 
made to identify the great national Whig party with the local politics 
of New York. 

Yes, sir ; I helped to rock the baby in its infancy, and to nurse 
it into manhood. I have seen it grow up and assume a coUossal 
statue, and while I have rejoiced in its triumphs, I have never been 
disheartened nor discouraged by its defeat, nor by a succession of 
defeats. 

The great curse of the Whig party has been its tunidity ; its wil- 
lingness to lay down its arms and surrender at discretion upon every 



12 SPEECH OP THE 

reverse of fortune ; there arc too many of our leading men who 
cannot live in a minority, who cannot breathe easily unless they are 
sustained by power ; and upon each successive defeat, we are admon- 
ished by tliem, of the necessity of abandoning this measure and that, 
because (they say) we can never get into power until we do. Sir, 
with me it is not a question of power ; it is a question of light and 
of proprict}'. I ask myself the question, is this a proper measure for 
the government to adopt ? AVill it advance the general prosperity ? 
Will it benefit the people ? Will it promote the arts of peace ? 
Will the great agricultural, commercial, manufactui ing, and laboring 
interests of the country be advanced by its adoption ? and if these 
questions are answered in the affirmative, why should I, or you, or 
any of us surrender them, because we happen to be beaten in a 
political contest involving a thousand other minor issues as well as 
these r 

While we owe our defeats in a great measure to this practised 
timidity, our opponents arc largely indebted for their occasional suc- 
cess, to a different system of tactics. I have always admired them 
for then- boldness and courage, if for nothhig else ; the more you 
whip them to-day the readier they are for the fight to-morrow ; and 
that is just what I want to see the Whig party do ; how else did 
they succeed in fastening that contemptible humbug, the Sub- 
Treasur}', (which never has, and never can be practically executed 
without immense loss to the government and injury to the people,) 
upon the country r When they were so badly beaten upon that issue 
in 1840, did they abandon it: Did they give it up .' And if by 
their perseverance they could thus succeed in establishing a had 
measure, why could not wc by a similar perseverance, succeed in 
establishing a good one ? And at this moment when we know that 
there is not one sensible and well informed man in the country, 
whether Whig or Democrat, who believes in the wisdom or practica- 
bility of the law, as it now stands, we see all submitting to it, and 
the Whig party seem afraid to throttle the monster, and to crush 
its enormities ; but something more of this Sub-Treasury hereafter. 

Let us take up these measures for which we have contended for 
twenty years, one by one, and sec if any good reason exists for 
abandoning them ; if upon fair trial they shall have proved to be in- 
jurious to the public good, let them go ; but surely, no sane man can 
be convinced of their injurious tendency, because wc cannot always 
retain the power of the government in our own hands ; and I might 



irON. .lUlIN M. r.oTTS. l.'i 

here ivniark, that if tlio pooplo arc supposed tn liav.- tlcciJcd atraiiist 
thoin in '-l-I ami 'r)'2, they as surely dcridtftl in tli-ji- f-ivor in ' JU and 
'48, and aro most lilccly to do so airain in 'oil. 

How is it with tlie i(uostion of protection to home labor .- IIa< 
that great principle become obsolete r Are we ready to ^ive it up • 
Ts/ree trade indeed in the ascendancy r The tariff of '40 I irrant 
you has taken the place of the tariff of '12, but then is the tjiriff of 
'It! a free trade tariff? Does not everybody of good sense know, 
that any tariff tluit rant^es in its duties from ten and fifteen, to forty 
and fifty per cent., and upwirds, is a discriminating tariff.- and dmi't 
every body know that discrimination is a recognition of the princi]»le 
of protection .' The question is, is it a judicious discrimination, and 
does it protect where protection is most needed .' liut discrimina- 
tion in itself recognizes the principle, and in any alteration that 
may be made of the present tariff, the party in power will not 
fail to adopt that principle. You may call things by what names 
you choose, but the tariff of '16, Mr. Chairman, is no more a free 
trade tariff' than my State is a free State ; but at the same time, I do 
not agree that it judiciously discriminates, or affords proper protec- 
tion to such articles as most need it. I moan such articles as we can 
supply at home, and must consume. 

It may become, perhaps it has become necessary, that the tariff 
should be revised and modified, if only to diminish the superabund- 
ant revenue that is accumulating in the public trea.^ury, and it may 
be found indispensable to dhninish the duties on some article-, and 
equally indispen.sable to increase them on others, but you will find 
that under no circumstances, will any party in this country, venture 
upon *an equal rate of duties on all articles that we import. They 
must and will discriminate, and so discriminate, as to give protection 
to certain interests ; and if I am right in this, let us, instead of sur- 
rendering the principle, maintain that we have established the wisdom 
of the system, and claim the credit for our party, that its sagacity 
and wisdom has entitled it to receive at the hands of our opponents. 

But let us sec how their tariff' of '4(3 has operated, practically ; 
that it has furnished a sufficient amount of revenue cannot bo ques- 
tioned; but at what cost it has done so, remains to be seen. We all 
know how common it is for the public men of the Democratic ]»artv, 
(they have usurped that name, and in it, consists their only .stren<;tli, ) 
to claim infinite credit for the acquisition of California, which with 
its untold millions of gold, they .say has staved off such a commer- 



14 ^;PEECH OF THE 

cial crisis, as has been lieretofore unknown to our people ; well 
admit that to be so ; what I degire they should next tell us, is, 
■what would have produced this crisis ; and then what resort would 
have been necessary had not the golden sands of California so op- 
portunely come, to avert the calamity and distress which would have 
befallen us. I will tell you. Fir.st, it was the vicious (or perhaps it 
would be more appropriate to say unsound) system of legislation, by 
which our people were induced to encourage European workshops 
and European labor to the exclusion of American workshops, and 
American labor, that would have brought on the crisis — precisely 
the same causes that produced the revulsion of 1S37; and in tho 
nest place to have remedied the evil, it would have been necessary 
to resort to a diffjrent system, by which we should have afforded en- 
couragement and protection to the labor of our own people in pref- 
erence to the labor of any other people on the earth ; as it is, that 
mighty iaflus of gold that should have been spent among our own 
people at home, has follov/ed on in the regular channels of trade, and 
is now to be found in the workshops of Europe. Now, in my judg- 
ment, he. is the wisest man, and the most reliable statesman, who 
recommends such a system of legislation as would enable the indus- 
try of the country to protect itself, at all times and under all cir- 
cumstances, and that would render the country absolutely independ- 
ent in every sense of the word. Suppose a general war should 
break out in Europe, in which the four chief powers should be 
engaged, which I have not only looked upon for some months as 
extremely probable, but as almost certain, notwithstanding the 
opposite views that have prevailed in this country as well as in 
France and England, for I have not been able to see why the- Em- 
peror Nicholas should relinquish the advantages he has already 
obtained, (by the temporizing course of France and England, each of 
•whom have frittered away their time in idle negotiations, while he has 
been preparing for war,) towards the accomplishment of an objeet 
that has constituted the chief anxiety of Russia from the days of 
Peter the Great, down to the present time, to wit : the possession of 
Constantinople. I say, suppose such a war should come, what would 
be the consequence to us } The low rate of duties, as I have said, 
has induced our countrymen to go abroad to purchase many, very 
many articles which we were able to furnish and should have manu- 
factured at home, and by that process we have become largely 
indebted to Great Britain. 



IK)\. JOHN M. BOTTS. \o 

The Britlsli goviTnnu'nt is sustaiiu'd by its inoiiii-d ail-docnicv ; 
they must have money 1o carry on the war ; the IJarings and' the 
Rothchilds will have the control of the entire debt, in all, amount- 
ing to some four or five hundred millions, and will call it in 
as fast as it becomes due; and then is the tmie'tliat the shoe will 
begin to pinch ; then will be the time that we shall discover the beau- 
ties and advantages of excessive importations superinduced by low 
duties ; and with or without war, pay-day must, and will come, soon- 
er or later ; and when it does arrive, then we shall see the workings 
of what many are now pleased to call the free trade system. 

Even now in the absence of a war in Europe, suppose my friend 
from Texas [Dr. Jones, who sat near by] were here to borrow, on 
the best possible security, for himself, or his State, a sum of money 
necessary to carry on some important work of internal improvement, 
and he were to go upon Wall street to obtain it, would he not be told 
to go to England and he would be supplied ? Now why should this 
be ? Why simply because our money has all gone there to be 
expended in foreign labor, when it should have been expended upon 
domestic industry. Had our policy been pursued, we should have 
been able to withstand the convulsions and upheavings of Europe ; 
for then we should not only have been entirely out of debt, but should 
have retained the California ffold amonsf ourselves. Dead as the Whi^r 
party is said to be, obsolete as are its principles, I am as resolute as 
ever in favor of the policy of protection to American labor and 
American enterprise, against the labor and enterprise of all the 
world. 

Mr. President and gentlemen, I have seen no cause to change my 
opinions on that subject ; but on the contrary, I see every reason 
why we should hold on to it, and why the other party should adopt 
it as a part of their policy ; and the time will come, indeed it is not 
far distant, when all will be compelled to acknowledge that it is 
the true system for our government to adopt. Nay, the policy 
of President Pierce (as it has been foreshadowed by some appar- 
ently confidential friend) will be to protect all those interests con- 
nected with the national defences. Here, then, is a virtual recogni- 
tion of the principle of protection ; and what a margin does it leave ? 
What is necessary for the national defences .' Iron and lead cer- 
tainly are ; bat will it not also embrace woolens, cloths, blanket ma- 
king, leather, shoes, and cotton ? because it is obviously quite as 
necessary that our soldiers (to enable them to resist the elements) 



16 SPEECH OF THE 

slionki have clothing, blankets, shoes, and shirts, as powdor, guns, 
and balls, to resist the enemy, * * * Let us then hold on to 
our cherished principle of pi-otection. Don't let us throw it aside as 
a cast-oft' garment, to be taken up by the first who passes on the 
great highway, for then our opponents will be entitled to take it, and 
use it to our disadvantage ; let us rather force them to borrow, or to 
beg it, and give us the credit for it. 

Then what about that other great question of internal improve- 
ments, which has heretofore been a bone of contention : Is that 
obsolete too ? AVhy what have we lately witnessed ? We have seen 
the Democratic party meeting in convention at Baltinioi'C, looking 
only to political results, patching up a platform in which they ixtter- 
ly repudiate every principle of the Whig party, as destructive and 
ruinous to the best interests of the nation, and going before the coun- 
try with a candidate pledged to free trade, anti-internal improve- 
ments, and against an equal distribution of the public lands, and 
fully committed to sustain the Union and the compromise parties of 
the country. They succeed— tlieir object is accomplished — General 
Pierce is elected, and a few montlis after we see another convention 
assembled at Memphis, far larger than the first, composed chiefly of 
prominent, influential, and talented men of the same party, the 
object of which is to devise and recommend for the adoption of the 
government, such measures as arc best calculated to advance the 
great interests of the entire country ; no longer having political ends 
in view, they recognise all those principles they had just before repu- 
diated and denounced, and they call upon the executive of their own 
selection, to administer the government upon those very principles 
which have heretofore divided the two great parties of the country, 
and for which the Whigs have struggled, with alternate success and 
defeat for the last twenty years ; and yet we are told that our princi- 
ples are obsolete, and antediluvian. Yes sir, that convention asked 
for protection from the government, to steam communication between 
the southern and European ports ; they recommended a system of 
internal improvements that will connect the Atlantic and the Pacific 
coasts ; and they called for a distribution of the public lands, among 
the states bordering on the wcsteiii waters, for improving the naviga- 
tion of tho.se mighty streams ; and added to this, we see their Union- 
loving and comjrromise-ahidi'ng President turning a deaf car to the 
claims of the Union-loving and comjpromise-abiding men of the 
country, while he showers his favors, bestows his rewards, and fills 



HON. JOHN M. BOTTS. 1 7 

the offices of the rountrv, north and south, on tho5C alono who had 
been most vioJent in their hostility and opposition to the coinjtronu.sc 
measures — the a;^ita(ors of the slavery question in one section, and 
the secessionists and disunionisls in the other. Hero wo have Dem- 
ocratic profession on (he one hand, and Dcmncratif practice on the 
other ; and now I ask you gentlemen, and I would ask the country 
to survey the position they occupy, and toll me what claims have the 
BO-called Democracy to the confidence and support of our people .' 
and I ask you farther, if this is a time for any Whig to contemplate 
with composure a disbandment of our organization - 

If I have succeeded in establishing the posdtion, that they liavr 
no claims upon the confidence of the country, I propose now to 
show that they have usurped a name, to which they have still less 
claim than to your support or esteem ; a fiivorite argument with 
our opponents, more especially when they address themselves to 
that portion of the foreign population who do not understand 
the features that distinguish the two parties, ife, that wc, the "Whigs, 
are federalists, and monarchists, who arc not friendly to the institu- 
tions of the country, and arc incapable of administering the govern- 
ment. Now I take it, that one of the first principles of democracy, 
consists in a recognition of the right and the caimnlij of the people 
for self-government ; let us see then, how far they recognise these 
two great fundamental truths ; and this we must do by analyzing the 
argument above mentioued, by which they have acijuired such a pre- 
ponderaucc of the foreign vote. 

I think it will approximate the reality, if we suppose there arc 
five hundred thousand foreign voters in the United States ; and it 
will be by no means an extravagant calculation, to put four hundred 
thousand of them as voting with the Democratic party, and one hun- 
dred thousand with us ; now then, strike four hundred thousand from 
their poll, and one liuudred tliousand from ours, and what an im- 
mense majority of the native born population of the country is found 
on the side of those, who are not (according to their statements) 
friendly to free institutions, and are incapable of self-government ! 
and in what a lamentable, humiliating, and pitiable a condition does it 
present us before the world ! — that if left to ourselves, we would des- 
troy our own, blessed, glorious, free institutions; that wc would be 
incapable of nianaging our own affiiirs ; and that it is therefore 
necessary to call in the foreign population, that flows to us from 
every quarter of the world, who never enjoyed freedom at home, who 
2 



18 SPEECH OF THE 

are of necessity iu a large degree unfamiliar with ovxr constitution, 
Jiiany ivith our language^ and all with our laws and institutions, in 
order to perpetuate our form of government, to protect our liberties, 
and hand down the rich inheritance of freedom to our children ; 
and this is the starting point of their democracy. 

I have had no difficulty, Mr. Chairman, in solving a question which 
has puzzled the brains of thousands, to-wit : the universal and anx- 
ious inquiry. Why is it, that the foreigners all vote against us ? 
Sir, it is the charm conveyed to their senses by the sound of Democ- 
racy; they give to the term its true signification ; they know of no 
other democracy than that which is to be found in antagonism to 
aristocracy, or to despotism and the power of the sovereign ; there is no 
other democracy than that which is to be found in the power of the 
people ; and they naturally believe when they come among us, that 
democracy on this side of the water, means what they understood 
by democracy at home. Nothing is more natural than that they 
should identify themselves with those, whom they suppose are strug- 
gling to maintain the rights, and the power of the people of which 
they themselves compose a part ; it is not because they are opposed 
to us, or our principles, but because they do not understand the na- 
ture of the questions that divide us ; and when they have been here 
long enough to ascertain the truth, like other men, pride of opinion, 
pride of consistency, and old habits and associations bind them down 
to the party with which they have been accustomed to act. 

But let us suppose that upon the arrival of some intelligent, well- 
meaning, and reflecting foreigner upon our shores, he were to inquire 
of some honest Whig, what were the issues that divided the Whig 
and Democratic parties, and he were answered: We are alike devo- 
ted to the Union and the constitution ; we alike rejoice in the bless- 
ings of free government ; we are alike anxious to perpetuate our 
institutions ; we alike recognize the power and the sovereignty of the 
people ; but we diiFer in our views as to the best mode of administer- 
ing the government, so as to advance the general prosperity and wel- 
fare of the whole ; as, for example, we think it wise and proper that 
such a system of legislation should be adopted, as will supply you 
and your counirymen, your wives and children, as well as our own 
people with the means of making an honest livelihood, by their labor; 
we ask for a system, by which your industry will be protected, by 
which employment will be furnished ; by which our twenty-five mil- 
lions of people shall be induced to give a preference to the labor of 



HON. JOHN M. nOTTS. 19 

the United States, so far as they can supply wliat is consumed, to 
the labor of Europe, from which you have just come, to make your 
livinii, and improve your condition ; while our opponents, the Deino- 
crats, advocate a S3'stem, by which our people are encouraged to 
trade abroad ; to import from Europe, what by your labor you could 
supply at home ; to send our millions to the workshops of foreign 
countries, which shuts up the doors of our own shops, turns thou- 
sands and tens of thousands out of employment, who are forced to 
make a living by the most disreputable means, in lieu of the honest 
industry they have sought in vain to employ. 

This is one of the great questions which divides us. He would 
ask : Is that what is meant by Democracy ? Not eutirely ! there is 
another point on which we differ. We think that with a country 
extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the St. Law- 
rence to the Gulf of Mexico, with agricultural productions, and man- 
ufacturing interests that might supply the world, we stand in more 
need than any other people of such a system of internal improve- 
ments, as will afford facilities for communication from one section of 
the country to the other, and of supplying the demands of commerce, 
by removing obstructions to the navigation of our great water 
courses, that bear on their bo.soms, a large portion of the commerce 
of the world. We think if the navigation of the Mississippi, four 
thousand miles in extent, shovld be obstructed by a sand-bar, that 
it should be removed, rather than lose the benefit of that wonderful 
natural channel of commerce ; toe believe that our lakes and harbors 
should be rendered safe from the perils of the tempest ; we believe 
that the wisdom of our forefathers confered on the general govern- 
ment the power to do these things ; we believe that the same author- 
ity which grants to Congress the power to appropriate money for the 
erection of lighthouses, to warn the storm-tossed mariner, of the 
treacherous sand-bank, also gives to Congress, the power to remove 
the sand-bank itself; we believe, furthermore, that as the general gov- 
ernment has assumed control over our navigable streams, by exacting 
tonnage duties, as well as duties on all imports, passing over these 
great national highways, that it is in duty bound to improve these wa- 
ter courses and keep them in good repair, or cease to charge tolls upon 
them ; in short, we believe, that the government belongs to the 
people, and ought to be administered rather more for their benefit 
than for the officious office holders who live upon the public crib, and 
that such a policy should be adopted, as will best promote the gcgat 



20 SPEECH OF THE 

industrial interests of the nation, no matter in what branch of enter- 
prise it may be engaged, whether agricultural, manufacturing, com- 
mercial or rncehauicai. Not so with our opponents ; t.hey believe 
that government was not instituted for an}' such purposes ; that the 
government has no concern with the interests of the people ; that 
the government should take care of iUelf^ and let the people take 
care of themselves ; that it has no authority to protect the industry 
and labor of its own people ; no authority to improve the navigation 
of our water courses ; no authority to furnish these facilities to com- 
merce ; no authority to protect the property of our people, or render 
secure the lives of our seamen, and travelers on these public high- 
ways, by the removal of whatever might endanger the one or the 
other ; but that the general government should receive the tolls, 
while the States should repair the roads, or leave the snags, logs, 
sand-bars, and beaches just as you find them ; and they profess to 
believe that it is very Anti-Democratic, that the people should be 
indulged in any such security either to life or to property, as to take 
them out of the way. This, tlicn, is another of the tests of what 
they , call Democracy on this side nf the water; but there is still 
another. 

We have a great land fund belonging to the general government? 
most of which formerly belonged to the several States originally 
composing the Union, which they transferred to the general gov- 
ernment, for the common benefit of all ; the balance has been since 
acquired by conquest, or by purchase, for which all the States paid 
m fair proportion. This fund has for some years past been used 
by demagogues in Congress, for the purpose of making political cap- 
ital for themselves, by voting it away in large quantities to the new 
States, while all interest was withheld from the old. We have 
asked for an equal distribution among all the States, if it is to be 
appropriated to any; that wo should all share, and share alike 
This the Democratic party opposes, while year after year, millions of 
acres are voted away to such of the new States, as certain of their 
leaders imagine can bp brought to their support for a Presidential 
nomination. 

These arc the questions that divide us, and all who advocate the 
one system, are called Deniorrats. and those who advocate the other 
are called Whips. 

Now, Mr. Chairman, if he wore ;in intelligent man to whom thi.«i 
true definition of Whiggery and Democracy wa.s explained, do you 



HON. JOHN M. BOTTS. . 

not thiak he would be st«g»ero<J to tell why lln-ii m\A imt we hIjouIiI 
be called the Demoeiatic party : Would he uot be puzzled to tirid 
uue single principle ofdoniocraey in their whole ereedr And yet every 
man ot" candor and intelligenee I think luust admit, that these are the 
questions, and only questions, since the :Jettleujent uf the hank ques- 
tion, which have divided the two parties ; and if they were fairly lUi- 
derstood, I cannot persuade myself, that tlie Dcuiocratie party could 
command one tithe of the vote it now boasts, either from the foreign 
born, or native population of the country. 

The Democracy claim to be the progressive party, tou ! and si-ck 
tu disseminate the impression that we are the '' stu nd-still parly,'' 
or, as some call it, the " do-nuthing parftj.''^ Surely the internal 
improvement party is not the stand-still party ; the party that h for 
building up manufactures of every sort, of eucouraglug the mechanic 
arts, of giving employment to all, and taking care of all, is not the 
stand-still party ; it is they who oppose this system — they who uill 
not progress — they are the partv to whom that coiruomeu should be 
applied. 

But th^re are two kinds of progress through lite — the one rational, 
the other destructive ! When T read an account of some dashing, 
high-spirited young fellow, whose horse has run away with him, and 
dashed his vehicle to pieces and nearly broken his neck, I cannot 
but regard it as progress ; but it is something of Democratic pru 
gresSy rather of the destructive order. How much better it would 
have been, to have kept the reins in hand and the horse in subjection 
Sometimes we read of a steamboat that is in such haste to make 
rapid progress through the water, that she gets up too much steam, 
and away goes boat, cargo, crew, and passengers in the air. Thia 
is certainly making rapid progress, but not of the rational kind — 
it smacks of Democratic progres.s ; it is a sj)ecies of Democratic pro- 
gressive, go-ahead cleverness. Tt was the sauie spirit of headlong, 
Democratic progress that precipitated the New Haven cars into Nor- 
walk river, with such terrible and calamitous residts. So it will be, 1 
fear, with Democratic progress, in affairs tif government, when wc 
undertake the only progress they propose, which is tu neglect our 
own affairs, disregard our own interests, and go roaming over the 
world, i// imitation of ancient /?6iwe, plundering our neighbors ol 
their lawful property, and in imitation uf Don Quixote, rightinv^ 
the wrongs of all mankind. I would rather have a rational, conser- 
vative driver, who would control his horse ; a rational, conservative 



22 SPEECH OF THE 

firemen, who would not put on too much steam ; and a rational, con- 
servative engineer, who would control his locomotive, and travel 
with rather less speed, and more safety ; so, in like manner I would 
prefer a sound, safe, rational conservative Whig, at the helm of gov- 
ernment, who would attend to our business at home, progressino- 
rapidly, but steadily and safely — extending our commerce, increas- 
ing our agriculture, enlarging our manufactures, and securing peace, 
plenty, independence and happiness to all our people ; and if we do 
not have such an engineer to guide our great national locomotive, 
who can tell what catastrophe may not sooner or later overtake and 
overwhelm us ? 

Sir, there is an old Latin maxim that is full of meaning and good 
sense — " Confir mat usum, qui tollit abusum ;" he confirms the use, 
who destroys the abuse. We strengthen and aid progress by res- 
training its abuse; and upon this principle, I hope to see the conser- 
vative Whig party always act. Let individual citizens, in the exer- 
cise of their personal rights, (taking care not to infringe the laws 
of their country,) do as they like, on their own responsibility ; but let 
the government take care at all times, and under all circumstances, 
to watch with the most jealous vigilance the faith and integrity of 
the nation ; let them guard it, as they would " thz apple of their 
eye.'''' 

Mr. Chairman, I am often asked why am I a Whig ? My answer 
is, because I am a Democrat ; because I believe there is more sound 
Democracy in the Whig ranks, than in the ranks of the other party, 
and because I go for the principle, and notthewawze or the sound of 
Democracy ; how could I be anything else but a Democrat } Losing 
both father and mother when I was but a child nine years old, (by 
the burning of the theatre in Richmond,) I was soon after sent off 
to a boarding school, and from that day to this, have been mixed up 
with the people, sympathizing in all their wrongs, contending throuo-h- 
out my manhood, for all their rights, and struggling for their political 
equality, despising at all times every thing that savored of aristoc- 
racy and pride, whether of birth or fortune, ready to resist oppres- 
sion whenever and wherever I met it ; brought up in the midst of 
the people and one of themselves, how could I be, in my nature, 
habits, associations and sympathies, anything but a Democrat.? And 
yet, suppose I should desire from any cause, to associate myself 
with the Democratic party, what are the tests by which I would be 
tried } To what doctrines or principles would I have to subscribe, 



HON. JOHN M. HUTTS. 23 

to gain an iidiuittauco into their ranks and iVIlowsIiip with them ? 
Thoy surely could not reject nie on the ground that I was in favor 
of the priaciplo of protection, fur that would have excluded Mr. Jef- 
ferson and General Jackson from the Democratic party, as it would 
now exclude many thousands of their present friends, including Mr. 
Buchanan, who, with Silas "Wnght, voted for the tariflf of 1842, and 
without whose votes, it could never have become a law ; it could 
not be, on the ground that I was in favor of internal improvements, 
for that would exclude Gen. Cass and many of the prominent Nor- 
thern and Western men of the Democracy; and it was but the other 
day, that here in this very hall, two members of Mr. Pierce's Demo- 
cratic Cabinet, made speeches in favor of the Pacific llailroad as a 
government measure. What then would be the test f AVhy //m, 
and this only: If I could consent to vote for the democratic nomi- 
nee, and thus secure to them the spoils of office, I should be con- 
sidered as good a Democrat as the best of them. 

Mr. Chairman, I have said I was a Democrat, not a Locofoco ; 
I am led by no false lights^ but a Democrat in the true sense and 
signification of the word. I duslre to furnish additional proof of it ; 
not for any personal advantage that 1 expect or desire to derive 
from it, but because I am generally regarded as the most stubborn 
and inveterate, and ultra of the Whig party, and if (being such) 
I can relieve myself of the charge of federalism, it should go far to 
relieve the party of which I am an humble member, of a similar 
imputation. 

It has not been long since I was a member of a convention in 
Virginia, for making a constitution for the State ; and according to 
my views, there was the place, and that the occasion to test the 
soundness of Democracy ; that was the place and then the time to 
establish the rights, and the power of the people. I knew of no 
other Democracy than that which was opposed to an aristocracy or a 
despotism. In that convention I strenuously resisted a proposition to 
take "power from the people, and confer it upon property. I went for 
protection to property and representation to men^ and I went against 
the wishes of the whole of Eastern Virginia, which was the section 
in which I lived, and a part of which I represented. I warmly 
advocated universal suffrage without property qualification; I voted 
for, and advocated the right of the people to elect their own officers 
of every description, judges, sheriffs, clerks, constables, and all ; I 
went for taking all power out of the hands of the few, and conferring 



24 SPEECH OF THE 

it on the many ; T went for taking it out of the hands of the politi- 
cians and conferring it on the people ; and it was on my motion, that 
one half of the entire capitation tax of the State, was forever appro- 
priated to the cause of education, through the operation of free 
schools ; and in my ignorance and simplicity, I thought I was going 
for Democracy in its genuine purity, but I was mistaken. If 
Virginia Democracy was sound, then these principles were federal ; 
my course met with the condemnation of the Democracy. I sacri- 
ficed my election to Congress to sustain these pillars and corner 
stones of true Democratic faith. (I may be pardoned for introdu- 
cing here a few short extracts from a speech made in the convention 
on the basis of representation, which was not at hand when I made 
til is speech.) I said : 

" This is a government of persons, and not of propeiiy ; andbefqre 
I would vote for the principle that property should have more power 
in this government than men, I would vote for a monarcliy. I do 
not know, if I were a large property holder, a John Jacob Astor, 
what I might be tempted to do — perhaps I may not know myself. 
Every man loves power more or less, and I might fall ; but I belong 
to that class of persons who constitute a large majority of the citi- 
zens of this Commonwealth who have little property to protect ; and 
I will not give power to any man's wealth over me and mine. But, 
while I will afford to the property holder all the protection he de- 
mands, I too have some few demands to make upon him for the 
preservation of my rights and the rights of the large class of citizens 
to which I belong. Wealth has akeady too much influence in every 
respect, without engrafting it as a constitutional principle. 

" Why, in what age do we live ? Are we in the middle of the 
nineteenth century, when the school master is abroad all over the 
face of the civilized globe, when men arc asserting their own rights 
and throwing off the shackles of despotism, when thrones are tot- 
tering and tumbling into the dust, before popular freedom and 
popular rights ? Is it here for us, here in the Old Dominion, in tiiis 
old Commonwealth of Virginia, to engraft upon our Constitution a 
principle that property is entitled to more weight, to more represen- 
tation in our government than men ■" If I stood alone out of the 
one hundred and thirty-five members upon this floor, I should stand 
perfectly erect among my constituents, slave-holding and property - 
holding constituents, and say to them, I trample such a principle 
in the dust." 



HON. JOHN M. BOTTS. 26 

" The next clau«e in that bill of rights reads : 

" ' That all power is vested in, and (-•onseqiiciitly di-rivt'd from the 
people.' 

" Not so with this enlightened age in which we now live. Kree 
principles have taken a retrogressive movement. Tht- prineiples of 
freedom that are extending themselves throughout the civilized globe 
have been checked, and here, in this consecrated spot — in this Con- 
vention of Virginia sages — in this old Commonwealth of Virginia, 
the principle i.s about to be subverted, and pouer is to be given to 
property, and not to persons. And this bill of rights goes on to 
declare " that when any government shall be found inadequate to 
carry out those purposes, a majority " — of what .- of property f 
No ! — " a majority of the commamty.'''' Does the word community 
mean property .- '' A majority of the community has the indefea- 
sible, inalienable, indubitable right to reform, alter, or abolish in such 
a manner as shall be deemed most conducive to the public weal." 
There is the power. There is where the poiver of government ia 
lodged by this declaration of fundamental principles. But it goes 
on to say " that no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or 
separate emoluments or privileges from the community." This is 
what your bill of rights asserts, as to the rights of property and 
power of persons. 

" Is this representation that you proposse to give to wealth not a 
privilege .' Is the representation that you propose to give the richest 
portion of this Commonwealth over the poorer parts of this Com- 
monwealth no privilege to wealth .- Then carry the principle out 
and give to the richer counties of this Commonwealth a greater 
political power than to the poorer counties ; then carry your princi- 
ple still further out, and apply it ecjually to the rich, as well as to the 
poor man, and give him power also equal to his wealth ; if the 
principle is sound, it comes to this. 

" I would here remark that I feel most proud of the opportunity 
and of the privilege of standing up here as one of the champions — 
feeble and humble as I am — of the power of the people against the 
power of property. I will give property its protection ; I will givtt 
no more." 

Upon the subject of taxation, I said : 

" Well, now, sir, I want to say something upon this subject of 
taxation. I have proposed an ad calorem system of taxation, and to 
my mind there is but one system of equality in taxation, and that is 



26 SPEECH OF THE 

to make every man contribute to the support of government accor- 
dinof to bis means and his ability. Our present system operates 
most injuriously and oppressively upon a hirge portion of the com- 
monvrealth. If ten men combine together to form a common com- 
munity, and if each of those ten men has $10,000 of capital and 
one thinks proper to invest his according to the dictates of his judg- 
ment, in houses and lots, the second invests his in slave property, 
the third invests his in merchandize, the fourth invests his in manu- 
facturing stock, the fifth in bank stock, the sixth in railroad stock, 
the seventh in drugs and medicines, the eighth in race-horses, and 
the ninth and tenth in vinproductive lands, waiting for a rise, or in 
any other species of property you think proper to imagine, my 
opinion is that the only fair and equitable system that can be 
adopted is to make these ten men pay equal sums upon .their res- 
pective capital to the support of the government. I know no rea- 
son why one should pay all and the other none. I know no reason 
why I should be compelled to pay a tax upon the watch in my 
pocket that may be worth sixty or seventy-five, or one hundred and 
fifty dollars, and another gentleman who has chosen to lay out his 
^500 or $1000 on a diamond breast pin or ring should be exempted 
from taxation. I know no reason why the poor man, who has for 
convenience or the convenience of his family, a common clock upon 
his mantlepiece, that cost him from three to five or ten dollars? 
should be required to pay a tax upon it, whilst the ornament upon his 
wealthy neighbor's mantlepice, that cost thousands, pays no tax at 
all. Sir, I despise demagogueisra. I am no demagogue. I am no 
flatterer of the people, but my sympathies are with the masses of the 
people. I am one of the masses. It is implanted in me by my 
creator as a part of my nature. I know no reason why the poor man 
in the country who has a horse which is necessary for the suste- 
nance and support of his family, should be required to pay a tax 
upon that horse, whilst his wealthy neighbor in the city who has a 
cow, perhaps worth ten times as much as the horse, should pay no 
tax. I am for an equal system of taxation upon the rich and the 
poor alike. Let those who have the most means contribute the most 
money for the support of the government. And from what class 
comes the chief objection to this system oi ad valorem taxation.'' 
You will find it to be from the large property-holders, and why ^ Is 
it because they wish to hold property without paying the necessary 
tax upon it. Or is it because they desire to throw the burthen of 



IIO.N. JOIlxx M. HOTTS. \L I 

taxation on those classes that cau't as well allurd to i>j.y it.- Jn cithur 
case I am for enforcing it." 

At another point, I said : 

" If there is any great object above all others that I do.sirc to sec 
established by this Convention now about to adojit a constitution for 
the State, it is so sec political equality, as nearly as may be, estab- 
lished in this land. Talk about equality among men ! There is but 
one species of equality that man can control. Man has no control 
over the nature of his fellow-man. He is made by his Creator, and 
until you can change the decrees of the Most High, making the pig- 
my equal to the giant, until you can make the idiot equal to the 
sage, until you can make the man of feeble, delicate constitution^ 
equal to the strong, hearty and robust man, until you can make the 
pauper equal to the millionaire in his influence, you can establish no 
general equality among men. But you can establish political equal- 
ity. That is your business and your duty, and that you are partic- 
ularly bound to do, because the people in their majesty demand it, 
and will have it. And they are right never to rest satisfied for one 
moment until they have obtained it. And I will give it to them 
•while I have the power to do it." 

Here then, Mr. Chairman, is the foimdation, this h the substra- 
tum of my democracy, and he who does not subscribe to it is, in my 
judgment, hostile to the principles of true democracy, or does not 
understand their import and value. 

Well sir, shortly after the expression of these sentiments, I went 
before the people as a candidate for Congress in competition with a 
gentlemen who took the opposite grounds, and was warm in his 
advocacy of a mixed basis, which gave more power to property than 
to persons ; by which seven thousand dollars in taxes was to balance 
the voice of twelve thousand persons. My vote on this question 
which alone defeated this odious proposition was made a promi- 
nent feature in the contest ; and, although my competitor was 
a secessionist, which met with little or no favor in the dis- 
trict, yet the whole entire strength of the Democratic party 
was cast against me ; my principles thus laid down, did not tally 
with their views of Democracy, because I was not for securing to 
them the power and the spoils, by voting for the Democratic nomi- 
nee of the Baltimore convention. Am I not then justified in saying, 
I have found public life not only a laborious and unprofitable, but 
most thankless occupation, and that many of those for whose inter- 



28 SPEECH OP THE 

est and welfare I have devoted the energies of both body and miud 
for twenty years and upwards, were prompt to surrender their own 
great inestimable natural rights, for which I have always struggled, 
to the dictation of party, and to the vulgar prejudice of hollow 
deceptive, and unmeaning party names : 

1 have thus, Mr. Chairman, endeavored to contrast our principles 
with those of our opponents, and our claims to confidence with 
theirs. I have endeavored to demonstrate that Democracy in this 
country, means anything but Democracy in the old country, and 
that here it is a party, indebted solely to its name for its strength, 
and I believe religiously, that if we had their name with our princi- 
ples, or they had our principles with their name, there could be but 
one party in the country ; you could not get up an opposition to it 

Look at the course pursued by the President of their choice 
You will recollect what I said here in Newark last fall about Free 
Soilism and his New Boston speech — you all know that h'la election 
was demanded as a triumph of the Union party of the country, 
against all factions and disorganizing agitators ; and here, after his 
election, the triumph was claimed for those who had stood by the 
Union, and the compromise against the hostility of the secessionists 
and the Free Soilers, and yet iMr. Pierce has done more i n the brief 
space that he has been in office, to give influence and importance to 
the secessionists and disunionists of the South, than five hundred 
Nashville Conventions could have done, and he has done more to 
revive the fallen fortunes of the Free-Soil party in the North, than 
five thousand such men as Mr. Seward could do in a life time ; by de- 
positing all the influence and emoluments of office in their hands, 
and making their views the only passports to favor ; and there is but 
one remedy left, and that is the action of the U. S. Senate next 
winter. If they confirm all these appointments of seceders on the 
one hand, and the Buft'alo platform party on the other, then indeed, 
we may tremble for the consequence ; we can only hope that they 
will draw certain lines, and by the co-operation of the Whigs and 
conservative Democrats, the evil may be averted by rejecting all 
those who come within those lines. 

Mr. Pierce in his letter to Major Lally, written on the eve 
of the meeting of the National Convention, used this remarkable 
language. I say remarkable, as connected with his subsequent 
cource of conduct ; he says — I quote from memory but believe I 
give his identical words : — 



HON. JOHN H. BOTTS. 29 

" If we, of the. North, who have stood up for the constitutional 
rights of the South, are to be sacrificed to any time serving policy, 
then the hopes of the Union and the Pcmocraoy must sink topether " 
Wo must leave it to those of the North wlio have stood up for tin? 
constitutional rights of the South, to say whether they have been 
sacrificed by the author of this declaration to a time serving policy 
or not. I think, sir, in despite of his prediction, we shall be able to 
arrest him in his work of sinking the Union, but he is sure to sink 
the Democracy, and the sooner he docs it the better, though I must 
do him the justice to ?ay that few could have accomplished so much 
towards it in the same time. 

There is one subject upon which I wish to make an observation or 
two, and I will conclude what I fear has been too much extended. 

Very much to my surprise, I saw it mentioned a few days a«ro in 
a. Whig press of the city of New York, that " all the old issuc3 npon 
which such fierce battles have hitherto been waged, aie in the deep 
ocean buried," and " that the Sub-Treasury has been so modified, 
as to be equally acceptable to both parties." This was a most 
astounding piece of information to be derived from a Whig paper 
I wish the editor had gone on to inform us, when, where, and how 
it had been so modified. I was not aware that it bad been touched, 
and 1 do know that it has not been in legal and practical operation 
since its enactment. We all know that Mr. (xuthric attempted 
shortly after his acceptance to office, to carry it into effect, ac 
cording to the provisions it contained, and he found it utterly 
impracticable and absurd to attempt it, and he abandoned it, and 
fell back in the old beaten path by vi'bich its main features are 
constantly violated. 

The law provides that all officers and other persons charged 
with the safe keeping, transfer and disbursement of the public 
moneys, who shall use by way of investment in any kind of 
property or merchandize, or shall loan with or without interest, 
OR SHALL DEPOSIT IN ANY BANK, or SHALL EX 
CHANGE FOR OTHER FUNDS, any portion of the publir 
moneys entrusted to him, &c., &;c., it shall be deemed and adjudged 
to be an embezzlement, which is thereby declared a felony ; and 
any officer or agent of the United States, and all persons advising 
or participating in such act, being convicted thereof before any 
Court of the United States, of competent jurisdiction, shall b« 
sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than six months. 



30 SPEECH OF THE 

nor more than ten years, and to a fine equal to the amount em- 
bezzled." 

This is one-of the provisions of the Sub-Treasury law. Well 
it so happened that when I was in Congress, in J 848, I had two 
small claims to collect from the Treasury department for one of 
my constituents, and on presenting the claims to the Register, I 
received in payment two checks on the bank of the Metropolis, 
numbering 1-12 and 1213, sliowing how often similar checks had 
been o-iven before during the two years and-a-half that the Sub- 
Treasury had been in operation. Here is an exact transcript of 
one of the checks, a copy of which I preserved. It reads thus : 

No. 1212. Treasury Department, ) 

Register's Office, April 15th, 184S. ^ 

CASHIER OF THE BANK OF THE METROPOLIS. 
Pay out of the funds placed in your hands, for the payment of 
unclaimed dividends on the stock of the United States, to Hon. 
John M. liutts. Attorney, or order, seventeen dollars 54-100, being 
the amount due John and Thomas Gilbert, and returned unclaimed 
from the late loan office of Virginia, and for which I have taken 
a receipt. Lib. 1. fol. 67. 

1 17 54-100. Signed. 

DANIEL GRAHAM, Register. 

As you may imagine, Mr. Chairman, I was not a little surprised 
at receivinfT these checks, containing on their face such evident 
violation of the Sub-Treasury act, which subjected all who ad- 
vised or participated in tl,ie act, to fine and imprisonment, and on 
my way to thecapitol, I met with the Post Master General, (Mr. 
Johnson,) and the Secretary of the Navy, (Mr. Mason.) I showed 
them the two checks, and remarked to them in a jocular way, I 
want you (they were on their way to a meeting of the Cabinet,) 
to deliver a message to the Secretary of the Treasury for me ; tell 
him I have these checks, by which it appears this law has been 
thus violated in his department and under his eye, one thousand 
two hundred and thirteen times, and that while 1 am a political 
opponent, I am a liberal one, and that I will give him his choice 
of either one of three modes of atonement for this offence against 
the laws of the country. 

He may either be impeached for a misdemeanor, and broke of 



UON'. JOHN M. nOTTS. 3 1 

his ofRce ; or he may be indicted befdre a grand jury of tlio 
District, and be sent to the penitentiary for six hundred years ; or 
he may send in anoflier communication to Congress, conft-ssing 
that liis Sub-Treasury scheme is an arrant, impracticable, impudent 
humbug, and I don't care whicli of the three he takes. 

After a few days reflection, T concludtvl tliat it was my duty to 
bring this matter to the consideration of Congress, ami I accord- 
ingly addressed a communication to Mr. Walker, callin'T liis at- 
tention to the provisions of the law, and of this violation of his 
, obligations, and stated that a sense of public duty, no less than 
justice to him, induced me to seek such explanation, as it might 
be in his power to furnish. In answer to that letter I received 
a long communication from the department, occupying four 
closely written pages of foolscap paper, which is worthy of pres- 
ervation in any gentleman's literary cabinet ; which for its looric 
wa3 rich, racy and unique. Well, what explanation do you think 
he gave 1 Why he set out with a denial that he had any money 
in bank, although the check read, " Fay out of the funds placed in 
your hands" and he furnished various accompanying letters to 
show that he had no money in the bank, and I don't care whether 
he had or not, if he had not, he exchanged funds with the bank 
which equally violated the law. He then undertook to show that 
it was no transaction between the department and the bank, f(jr the 
cashier of the bank had an unquestionable right to buy these checks 
of me, thus making it a transaction between the bank and myself. 
Then he takes the ground that while he had no knowledge until 
since the date of these checks, that the Register had been in the 
habit of making his payments in that way, and while he has no 
power to prevent the purchase of these dividends, (or checks,) by 
the banks, yet he has directed the Register not to do so any more, 
because it looks like a violation of the law. The Secretary then 
endeavors to get himself out of the scrape by sending Mr. Polk 
instead of himself to the Penitentiary, as he says, the Register is 
not appointed by, nor responsible to him, (although he has just 
directed him not to do so again,) and lastly, he winds up with 
saying that it could not under any circumstances be a violation of 
the law, inasmuch as the charter of the bank of the Metropolis had 
expired in 1S44; that it had never been re-chartered, and therefore 
it was no bank at all. [Great laughter.] When I go home 1 will 
send a copy of this correspondence to my friend Cougar, who shall 



32 SPEECH OF THE 

have the credit of being the first to lay it before the public , (it is 
now attached as an appendix.) You will naturajly enquire what 
I did on receiving this letter from the department, and I'll tell you. 
I immediately offered a r^olution to Congress, asking the ap- 
pointment of a committee to enquire into all abuses and violations 
Af the Sub-Treasury act, with power to send for persons and 
papers; the resolution was adopted, the committee was appointed, 
and I called on the Chairman, (Mr. Root, of Ohio,) over and 
again, to call his commijtee together and summon me as a wit- 
ness ; at the same time 1 received letters from gentlemen in New 
Orleans, Cincinnati, New York and elsewhere, authorizing me to 
have them summoned before the committee, to testify to the 
abuses and violations coming within their knowledge. But, Sir, 
everybody in Congress was then engaged in President making, 
and few could find time for any thing else, and the committee 
never did meet. And it was not long afterwards that the "Whig 
Convention met in Philadelphia, and nominated Cxen. Taylor, 
which I looked upon as such a death blow to the party, as that I 
took little interest in what was going on for the balance of the 
fifission, and did little more than my duty as Chairman of the Mili- 
tary committee, rendered indispensable and imperative, and there 
It ended. 

But thib* is the scheme, thit^ if^ the sub-treasury, that this Whig 
press of New York now says is equally acceptable to both parties ; 
and this is the defence that is offered for the violation of its provi- 
sions, which have continued in a thousand times more aggravated 
form from that day to this, and every day in the year, and which 
scheme never can be put into practical lawful operation. 

Candor, Mr. Chairman, compels me to say that I do not think it 
very creditable to a Whig President, and a Whig Secretary of the 
Treasury, who were in office for neai-ly thi-ce years with a full know- 
ledge of its imperfections and constant violations, never to have 
called the attention of Cougres.s to its enonruties, and at least have 
recommended such amendments as would have made it a legal agent, 
that could kgnlJy carry on the fiscal affairs of the government ; 
?fnd that it was not, is not, and never will be legally executed in its 
present shape, and that the necessary modifications arc such as will 
destroy its chief claims to the Democratic support, which was to 
discontinue all connection with banks, bank paper, drafts, or paper 
pvidences of debt, and bring us down strictly to a hard money, gold 



tlO\. JUIIN M. BOTTS. 33 

and silver curroucj. Quo of two tilings should be done : it should 
be executed according to law, or it should be abolished altogether. 
As it is, it is a humbug that is disreputable to the government, and 
it is not creditable to any to be satisfied with it. 

But one thing remains, Mr. Chairmau, now to be done, and that 
IS for the "Whig party to determine what course they ought to pur- 
sue. I do not know that my opinions are of any value, but accord- 
ing to my judgment, they should hold on to their present organiza- 
tion with the tenacity of death ; that they should surrender nothing 
of their principles ; hold on to such ground as they can occupy 
without producing excitement at the polls ; let the other party 
quarrel as they choose over the spoils, andas.sume the responsibility 
for whatever is to be done — no responsibility can rest on us, and 
I should be sorry to see the party take the responsibility of origina- 
ting any measure, but let us raise our flag aloft (that the discon- 
tented of the other side may know where to find a resting place,) 
and keep it floating until 185G, when the fruit will have ripened, 
and we shall have little else to do if we are wise and prudent, 
than hold out our hats and catch it as it falls. 

Mr. President and gentlemen, I have said all I have to say, and 
I am extremely grateful for the patient and anxious attention witli 
which you have honored me. 

3. The Union and the Constitution— The foundation of our prosperity and 
the bulwark of our liberties. 

Letters were read by the President, from Dr. Aycrigg, Jos. F. 
Randolph, and Wm. Halsted, expressing regret that they could not 
take part in this mark of respect to one of the country's worthiest 
eons. 

4. The Protection of Domestic Industry and a System of Internal Improve- 
ments—Cardinal prinoiples of the Whig party. 

This was replied to by Mr. Wm. E. Layton in a very effective 
manner. 

5. The Memory of Henry Clay— Other standard bearers may lead us to 
victory, but he was our first love, and will never be forgotten. 

Drank standing in silence— Responded to by Chief Justice Horn- 
blower, and upon the conclusion of his remarks he asked leave to 
retire, which was granted. 

6. Virginia and New Jersey— Together in tie Revolution, thev will r»t 
irtand together in the support, of the American system. 

This toast was handsomely responded to by I. M. Tucker. 
3 



34 DINNER TO HON, JOHN M. BOTTS. 

7. The Whig Party— Successful in '40 and '48— defeated in '44 and '52— it's 
our turn in '66. 

Wm. E. Robinson, Esq., being called upon, replied to this toast 
in a very effective manner. 

8. The Progress and Reform of the Sham Democracy — One step forward 
and two steps backward. 

9. Newark— a Whig city, full of sterling friends of the old cauee, may she 
never in an unguarded hour surrender to the enemy. 

Dr. Congar responded to this toast. 

10. The Broad Seal of New Jersey — Always vindicated by the people of 
our State, let our efforts be directed to placing it in Whig hands. 

Absolam B. Woodruff, Esq., of Passaic, was here loudly called 
for and replied in a very effective speech which was most happily 
received. 

11. The City of Richmond— -Always Whig, yet when our guest is running 
ibr Congress, we regret that there are not two Richmonds in the field. 

This was responded to by Dr. Fox, of Richmond, who alluded 
eloquently and warmly, to the guest of the evening, and boasted ol' 
his popiUarity in the old city of Richmond. The remarks were in 
excellent taste, and were received with great interest. 

12. The new Administration seems about to faint — May the Adamantineo 
find a capital hard place for it to fall on. 

13. As Statesmen we prefer men who never knew where Mason and Dixon » 
line was, and moreover never wish to know. 

This was handsomely replied to by L. S. Goble, Esq. After a 
song from Jerry Paul, the party br^ke up about one o'clock, highly 
pleased with the entertainment, and with the gathering. 



APPENDIX. 



HousK OK Rkpbesentatives, April 20th, 1848. 
Hon. Robert J. W.^lker, Secretary of the Treamry — 

Sir: On the loth of this niontb, I had occasion to collect, for one of mj 
constituents, two small claims for unpaid dividends on the stock of the United 
States, from the Treasury Department, for which T received in payment, two 
checks on the cashier of the Bank of the Metropolis. 

By the 16th section of the law, commonly known as the Sub-lreasury Act, 
it is made a felony for any officer of government to deposit the public money 
in any bank, for which offence severe penalties are attached. 

For all that I can see, this law must have been grossly violated in th» 
instance referred to, and a sense of public duty, no less than justice to you, 
induces me to seek such explanation as it may be in your power to furnish. 
I hope to receive an early reply, 

I am with great respect, your obedient servant, 

JNO. M. BOTTS. 



Treascbt Depabtment, Mat 4th, 184S. 
Hon. John M. Botis: 

Sir : Your letter of the 29th ultimo has been received, and the necessary 
measures were at once taken to answer your inquiries. You refer to two 
checks, each under dat« of the loth of April last, one for seventeen dollars 
fifty-four cents, and the other for eighteen dollars and sixty-nine cents, in 
your favor as attorney, both signed and issued by the Register of the Treasury, 
with a view to the payment of unclaimed dividends on the stock of the United 
States. Annexed you will find a letter from this department, marked Xo. 1. 
requesting from the Register of the Treasury an explanation of this transac- 
tion, Xo. 2, the reply of Mr. Graham, the Register, and No. S, an explanatory 
statement from Richard Smith, cashier of the Bank of the Metropolis. From 
these commnuications you will perceive that no public money has been 
deposited with the Bank of the Metropolis since the date of the act estab- 
lishing the Constitutional Treasury, approved August 6th, 1846. You will 
observe that the date of the last deposit with that bank to pay the«e divi- 
dends, was the 26th of October, 1844; that these depositee were all absorbed 
by the 10th of January, 1^45, and that any subsequent pa\Tnents were made 
hy the bank or by Mr. Smith, to the persons entitled to thes.j unclaimed divi- 
dends, without any deposite in the bank by the government to meet the 
checks. The bank in thip manner, oi- Mr. .Smith, became the holder and 



5G' APPENDIX. 

assignee of these uucliiiined dividends, and were subsequentlj paid out of the 
Treasury by warrants, in strict conformity with the law. No deposite being 
made with the bank since the passage of Ihe act establishing the constitntional 
Treasury, and no depositee remaining ihere to pay these dividend?, the 16th 
Bcction, then, of the law to which you refei-, forbidding future deposites with 
banks, has not been violated by the Register. 

Many years ago, under ihe provisions of the law, this fund for the payment 
of unclaimed dividends was placed under the direction of the Register of the 
Treasury, in whose keeping are all the books and papers appertaining to the 
matter, Whilst the Bank of the Urdted Stales was in existence as a deposi- 
tory of the government, these claims were paid by the Register, by cheeks on 
that institution. When the State bank system was adopted, the funds were 
deposited by the Register with the Bank of the Metropolis, to make these 
payments. It seems that the last deposite was made on the 26th of Octobe^ 
1844, with the bank, and it has had no funds for that purpose from the gov- 
ernment Huce the 10th of January, 1845. Tliese unclaimed dividends arise 
chiefly out^ of the old funded revolutionary and war debt, and are payable in 
very small sums, as minute as one, two, and three cents up to a few dollars, 
and are payable chiefly to the heir.^, executors or administrators of deceased 
persons. The Register finding it very inconvenient to pay tlie^e minute sums 
in separate warrants, adopted the plan before described. After the passage 
of the act establishing the constitutional Treasury, these checks were given 
by the Register, which, under the circumstances, are nothing more than a 
request upon the drawee to advance these small sums, temporarily to become 
in this manner the assignees and agents for their collection, and to look to 
the Treasury whenever they may desire, for the payment of the dividends. 
The dividends in fact are not paid by the Treasury, either to the bank, or to 
any other person whatever, except by a warrant passed through the Treasury 
in conformity to law, when the amount is liquidated for the first time out of 
the Treasury by draft upon the Treasurer of the United States. In this way, 
ft considerable aggregate amount was paid by ihe Treasury at one time to the 
agents or assignees, instead of the separate warrants for a few cents or a few 
dollars to the persons in whose names the unclaimed dividends stood on the 
books of the Treasury. The right of the bank to purchase these dividends 
and obtain payment for Ihe aggregate sum from the Treasury, is unquestiona- 
ble, and if this right is vested in the bank, the request to make the purchase 
and receive the aggregate payment from the Treasury, violates no provision 
of the law. No money is deposited by tlie Treasury with the bank, but 
when it becomes the lawlul holder of these dividends, it is paid from the 
Treasury by the usual treasury warrants in conformity with the law. 

It is due to truth, however, to state that this mode of payment by the 
Register, since the Constitutional Treisurylaw went in'o force, was never 
brought to the notice of this department until since the loth of April, 1848, 
and although the department possesses no power to prevent the purchase of 
these dividends by the bank, or to restrain the payment to it as an agent op 
ftasignee, yet it has requested the Riwister to issue no more checks of the cbaf' 



APPENDIX. 87 

acter referred to in your coiiiimmioution, not l.eciniBo thcv arc violative of ih« 
law, but for the reason tlmt they ]iivseiit an ai-peaninee of the deposile by 
the Treasury of public monies witii the banic, wiien in fact there is no euch 
deposite, and therefore requirin^^ exj)innation. 

The Register of tiie Treasury is not appointed by nor responsible to the 
Secretary of the Treasury, and if any error wei-e coinniitLed by hini, the cen- 
sure should not fall on this department, unless it had nogleeted to perform tho 
duties or give the instructions required from it by the law. If the j.roper in- 
structions were given by the Secretary of the Treasury, and tliey were disre- 
garded by the Register or any other oliicer, witliout the knowle<lge or consent 
of the Secretarv--, surely he would not be resj)on»ible either in moi-ais or iu 
law. 

The act establishing the constitutional Treasury was apjwoved on the Cth 
of August, 1846, but did not go into effect as regards tiie payment of monies 
under the provisions of the law until the 1st of January, and in fact for some 
months afterwards. Annexed are printed circulars issued by this department 
under date of the 25th and 26th of August, 1846, and the IS'h of September. 
1846, marked A, B, and C, which relate more especially to the mutter in con- 
troversy. The circulars of the 25th and 2Cth, were not only sent in printed 
letters to the several officers entitled to receive them, but, with a view to 
making them more fully known, were published at their resj)eciive dates in 
the Union and National Intelligencer of this city. You will perceive, espe- 
cially iuthe circular of the 26th of August, 1846, addressed to "collecting, 
receiving and disbursing officers of the United States," that the ICfh section of 
this act, as well as the 6th, 9th, and 15th are printed in the circular, and that 
" the attention of all public officers enumerated in the above section is hereby 
«alled to the provision therein contained." If therefore, this 16th section, as 
you have supposed had been violated by the Register as a disbursing otficer of 
the government, the act would have been committed, not onlv without the 
consent of this department, but directly in contravention of its printed circular 
and newspaper notice. It is belived, however, that you will be satisfied that 
no violation of the law was in fact committed by the Register, however much 
the check, to which you very properly call my attention, might have been 
well calculated to produce a contrary impression upon your mind. 

I have not placed this transaction upon the ground of any technicalilv, but 
(as incidentally referred to by the Regis' er,) the bank of the iletropolis ceased 
to exist as a Bank on the 4th of July, 1844; its charter then expired, and was 
not renewed, and it has now no more authority, power or exi-teace as a bank, 
than if it had never received a charter, and its business is conducted, as avowed 
•by itself and its counsel, as a private partnership, in the name of agents called 
trustees, and it has no other leual existence or rights than any other private 
partnershii) in this District, and is subject to the same responsibilities. Although 
this is the law, and this partnership is not a bank within the ju-ovisions of thq 
16th seciion of the act to which you refer, yet I should regard it ng contrary 
to the policy of the constitutional Treasury to make it a depository of public 
monies, This department hopes you will perceive that the law has not been 



38 APPENDIX. 

violated by the Register, much less by this department, and that you will see 
in the circulars issued by it, that it has been its sincere desire to perform its 
■whole duty fvilly and fairly in relation to this law. The Secretary of the 
Treasury, whose health does not permit him at this time to assume the full 
discharge of his duties, expresses his concurrence in this letter and desires me 
to tender his acknowledgments for the opportunity afforded to communicate 
lhi.« explanation. 

With threat respect, your obedient servanf, 

l^[. C. YOUNG, Acting Secretary of the Treasury. 



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